SAPUTO TO MAKE BID FOR AULT
By Adnews Staff
Saputo Group Inc. of Montreal announced last week that it intends to make a bid for Ault Foods Ltd. of Toronto. Saputo currently holds 16.4% of Ault's outstanding shares. Both companies are involved in the processing and distribution of dairy and food products. While Saputo has a strong dairy and food retail presence in Quebec, most of its operations outside the province involve the institutional food service sector. The Saputo Group also operates a real estate portfolio and has interests in such areas as transportation and hotel management. Recently Ault has been selling off portions of its business in order to concentrate on its cheese, butter and margarine products, distributed under such brands as Lactancia, Black Diamond and Parkay. The Saputo Group will offer Ault shareholders $28 a share. Saputo says this represents an 18% increase over Ault's average closing price over the last 10 trading days up to May 9. Holmes Donin Aloul of Toronto handles Ault's advertising. The Saputo Group handles most of its advertising in-house.